T.A. McMahon encapsulates this issue almost perfectly in his recent article The Upcoming Psychologized Generation (The Berean Call Newsletter, November 2012):
...[Christians] contradict their professing belief in biblical authority by looking elsewhere for solutions to solving life’s problems, primarily by turning to so-called authorities or “experts”—and particularly to psychologists. This is a tragic mistake because God’s Word is sufficient: “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter:1:3). The Word of God is the Manufacturer’s Handbook, with instructions for humanity regarding “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” What exactly are the “all things”? Certainly everything that pertains to or involves moral issues and anything that is sin related—either how to avoid it or how to repent of it. Clinical psychology cannot deal with sin—although most if not all of the issues for which people turn to psychotherapists are due to sin. The outcome of seeking psychotherapeutic help is always destructive for the faith of the believer for what should be obvious reasons.Psychological counseling is an anti-biblical replacement program for the Manufacturer’s Handbook. Its essential doctrine is that self, which is declared to be innately good, is the key to solving all of life’s problems. Therefore, foundationally, it stands in direct opposition to the Scriptures, which declare that self, i.e., man, is innately sinful (Jeremiah:17:9).
Your desperate defense of clinical psychology is a tragic example of how ingrained this false "science" has become in the modern mind, even in Christian thought.
You err greatly to aver, with ad-hominem attacks packed in (”desperate”), that there can be no practice of clinical psychology that walks hand in hand with a classical Christian understanding of sin and righteousness. You err extremely greatly. But the people who practice in this manner, pay the likes of you no mind, other than to pray daily for you.
You have set up a straw man and masterfully bashed it. In the meantime, people who suffer from mental illness and were not healed by a traditional church format by bigots such as you, have been helped to better sanity by the application of psychological Christian understanding that, in fact, predated Sigmund Freud.